Madison Apartments in Seattle’s First Hill Neighborhood Sells for $13MM

Last week, an apartment property in downtown Seattle changed hands between a local homebuilder and property management company.

On Wednesday, July 18th, the 76-unit Madison Apartments in Seattle’s First Hill neighborhood sold for $13 million, or approximately $171,052 per unit, according to public records filed with King County. The buying entity was VBC Madison LP, who shares the same address as Vaughn Bay Construction, a family-owned residential builder based in Fircrest, Washington. The seller was Seattle-based property management company Gibraltar LLC.

Neither the buyer nor the seller—who acquired the property for $5.5 million in 2013, according to public documents—responded to calls for comment about the sale in time for the publishing of this story.

The four-story Madison Apartments, located at 823 Madison St. in downtown Seattle, was built in 1902 and contains 76 units, according to the property listing on apartments.com. The asset, which was renovated in 1997 and is also occupied by Vito’s Restaurant and Lounge on the first floor, includes on-site property management and an outdoor courtyard area.

The property occupies a prominent location in Seattle’s downtown core and sits approximately one mile East of Pike Place Market and half a mile from the Washington State Convention Center. Additionally, the apartment complex is less than half a mile from Interstate-5.

Founded in 1991 as a family-owned residential builder operating in the Tacoma area, Vaughn Bay Construction has since grown into a provider of light commercial and affordable multifamily properties, according to the company’s web site. Vaughn Bay Construction, which now operates from Florida to the Hawaiian Islands, has completed nearly 6 million square feet of affordable housing which provides homes for more than 9,000 families.

Some of the company’s local projects—which are managed by Cambridge Management—include the Russell Road Apartments in Centralia, Washington, and the Grand Hotel Renovation in Yakima.

The Gibraltar Group has been managing multifamily properties in the greater Seattle area since 1998, according to the company’s web site. The company has various rental spaces throughout the region and offers a variety of maintenance and management services to its clients.